Carly Fiorina
Cara Carleton "Carly" Fiorina (born September 6 1954) was CEO (1999–2005) and Chairman of the Board (2000–2005) of Hewlett-Packard (HP), a storied American technology company.
Corporate career
Before joining HP in July 1999, she worked at AT&T and Lucent Technologies. She was listed by Fortune magazine as the most powerful woman in business for six years in a row until 2004, when the honor went to eBay CEO Meg Whitman. As of 2005 she is listed as the 10th most powerful woman in the world.
In 2002, Fiorina pushed through a controversial merger with rival company Compaq. The promised benefits failed to materialize, and many analysts claim that the move diluted the value of HP's otherwise profitable imaging and printer division. Since the merger, quarterly results have been inconsistent, which led to several sharp sell-offs in the shares. The company's stock price in 2005 was off two thirds from its high in 2000.
Fiorina's tenure at HP was nothing short of a prolonged controversy. Her unpopularity at HP was amplified by her many decisions which some thought to be provoking. When she first started at HP, she removed the portraits of HP founders, William Hewlett and David Packard, from HP lobbies, and replaced them with her own. HP had long maintained an essentially no-layoff policy during the many years of following The HP Way, immortalized in the book of the same name by David Packard. She, however, saw this as decidedly "old-school", and accelerated lay-offs to increase profits. Then, while HP was undergoing massive layoffs, she approved the lease of two new Gulfstream jets, and took endless trips to socialize with Hollywood movie stars and politicians, trips that could be justified as fortifying the benefits of one's political career, not those of shareholders and of HP. Her actions prompted the San Jose Mercury News, one of the prominent newspapers in the U.S. covering Silicon Valley, to speculate that she would run to become California governor, or a U.S. Senator, under the Republican ticket, after her career at HP was over. Fiorina never denied such rumors. According to family members of husband Frank Fiorina, as of 2005 she still hopes to land a high-level Government appointment in a Republican administration, but her abrasiveness may preclude this possibility for at least several more years.
Throughout her career at HP, Fiorina made many speeches at tradeshows, meetings, and conferences. She is oft-cited for a statement made on January 14, 2004, when she and other technology company leaders met with Congressional members and the Bush administration to lobby them not to impose new trade restrictions aimed at keeping U.S. jobs from moving overseas. In that meeting, Fiorina was reported to proclaim that "There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore. We all have to compete for jobs." While her statement could be viewed as a blunt description of the facts of the time, Fiorina could not escape the impression that she was condescending and elitist to the eye of the public. Despite her efforts to lessen criticism by publishing a clarifying op-ed piece on the Wall Street Journal one week later, Fiorina's statement left a bitter taste in American workers who were struggling to find and maintain their jobs.
Ousted from HP
On 9 February 2005, Carly Fiorina was ousted as chairman and chief executive officer of HP. The Board of Directors had previously threatened to reduce her responsibilities.
"While I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HP's strategy, I respect their decision," Fiorina said in a statement. "HP is a great company and I wish all the people of HP much success in the future."
Under Hewlett-Packard's severance agreement, Carly Fiorina received US$14 million in cash, which was 2.5 times her base salary and target bonus. HP also paid her US$5.88 million under its 2003-2004 long-term performance cash program, and US$1.5 million, which was the pro-rated amount of her awards under the 2004-2005 program. Her total severance package was estimated to total US$42 million. (Source: [1], 14 February 2005)
In March 2005, it was reported that Fiorina was being considered for appointment as the next President of the World Bank. However, President George W. Bush eventually nominated Paul Wolfowitz for the position (Wolfowitz was confirmed by World Bank's executive board on March 31 2005).
Fiorina holds positions on the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum. Mrs. Fiorina is an Honorary Fellow of the London Business School.
Personal life
She was born Cara Carleton Sneed in Austin, Texas.
Fiorina attended Stanford University as an undergraduate and studied medieval history and philosophy. Later, she attended law school at University of California, Los Angeles but dropped out to pursue a career in business. She earned an MBA at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park and an MS in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management under the Sloan Fellow program.
In 1985, she married AT&T executive Frank Fiorina (he opted for early retirement in 1998).
External links
Referenced By
Businessmen | Compaq | Compaq Computer Corporation | Hewlett-Packard | Hewlett Packard | IPod | List of business people | List of corporate leaders | MIT Sloan | MIT Sloan School of Management | Sloan School of Management
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